Perhaps one of the most visible signs of climate change, flooding is starting to affect communities that had hitherto thought they were safe. All the computer models show that as the earth warms the weather will get more severe and less predictable. Some places will get less rain and suffer drought, others will get more leading to catastrophic flooding. Even if annual rainfall totals in some areas remain the same, they will probably suffer greater flooding. This is because the rainfall will be less spread out throughout the year, but more intense. These rainfall events of greater intensity will inevitably lead to more frequent flooding.
In the UK alone catastrophic flooding has occurred recently in Carlisle, Sheffield, Doncaster and Tewkesbury affecting millions of people. Not only is this a huge inconvenience, it costs the insurance industry √?¬£millions. In addition many farm crops were flooded leading to food shortages. It seems likely that once inhabitable areas of flood plain will become less and less inhabitable as time goes on.